Sunday, November 18, 2007
Gender Benders In the Crosshairs
By Ann Rostow
November 15, 2007
Enough of ENDA! Don’t you agree? I know, it’s important. It’s not just ENDA. It’s the whole idea of who we are as men and women, and what we’re fighting for. The millenium generation, or whatever they’re called, will not be battling sexual orientation discrimination in a few years. But they will still be fighting discrimination on the basis of gender presentation. The macho gay guys and lipstick lesbians will be just fine. But woe betides the sissies, the dykes, the transmen and the transwomen.
I just read an article in last Sunday’s Boston Globe by Alison Lobron, called “Easy Out.” The subject was the decline of the closet, which is an underreported phenomenon. It’s true. Kids don’t go into the closet anymore, they grab their gay garb off the rack and get on with life in their mid teens.
ut one comment in Lobron’s lengthy piece caught my eye, and that was a remark from an 18-year-old girl who is trying to add gender identity and expression to her school’s anti-harassment code. “While she believes students are rarely harassed based on sexual orientation itself,” writes Lebron, “boys with feminine traits - and girls with masculine ones - still have a tough time.”
Our Foes Have Woes
In other news this week, I am fascinated by the much ballyhooed decline of the religious right as we know it; specifically the Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, James Dobson brand of avuncular venom that has poisoned politics, soured civility and crippled Christianity for the last 25 years. It’s chic to say that their time has come and gone, a piece of conventional wisdom that rings particularly true in Falwell’s case, since he’s dead. (Cue: “Sanctus” from Faure’s Requiem in D.) But it looks like the trendy punditry might actually be correct for once.
Exhibit A from this week is Pat Robertson’s endorsement of Rudy Giuliani, which might have occurred last week, I can’t recall. No matter! This week, Pat’s fellow conservofreaks have been bleating in outrage, particularly Randall Terry of Operation Rescue who said the decision made him “literally sick to my stomach.”
“If Rudy Giuliani was a Democrat,” said Terry, “Pat Robertson might denounce him as Satan himself - or at least Mayor Beelzebronx - Lord of the N.Y. Flies.” (Huh?) “Rudy has perfect credentials on social issues like child killing, partial birth abortion, federal funding for ‘poor women’ to have abortions, and so-called homosexual marriage or civil unions. Add to that his unblemished betrayal of the second amendment and he would be a stellar Democratic candidate - with the ethical stature of Al Sharpton, Al Gore and Hillary Clinton herself.”
Woah, Nelly!
As for Rudy, what is he thinking? Pat Robertson is the man who called feminism “a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians.”
This is the guy who said an earthquake, tornado “and possibly a meteor” would hit Orlando thanks to Gay Day at Disneyland.
Oh, I have a whole list here from the Dallas Morning News, but you’ve heard them all. Meanwhile, there was a big to do about James Dobson, who according to the American Spectator was all set to endorse Mike Huckabee within the next ten days.
According to the “Washington Prowler,” a source in Huckabee’s campaign said the nod from god “would help us get to the Thompson-McCain level if not higher. Dr. Dobson’s endorsement means that much.”
But the rumor was quickly quenched by Focus on the Family staffers, and Dobson himself, who said he is not planning on endorsing anyone in the near future.
Why does this matter? Because Sam Brownback just endorsed John McCain, and some big pro life group just endorsed Thompson, a whole bunch of preachers have paused on the stairway to Heaven to back Romney and even the Bush family is split between two or three candidates. They are canceling themselves out. Their endorsements are irrelevant and their agendas are last on the priority list of all the GOP candidates except maybe Huckabee, who won’t win the nomination in any event.
They are about to lose their own private bully, along with his pulpit. And as icing on the cake, it’s possible that their worst enemy will take command!
Hillary! Say It’s So!
But wait! Before you hand the Constitution over to Hillary, have you heard the latest gossip? Yes, it’s an Internet-fueled rumor of uncertain, read: baseless, origin. But there’s no reason to let that stop us from savoring the theoretical possibility that the Senator from New York is having an affair with her gorgeous personal aide, Huma Abedin.
I recommend that all readers rush instantly to the nearest computer and run a Google Image on Huma Abedin, and regardless of your gender or sexual orientation, you will certainly appreciate the rationale behind indulging in this kind of indiscretion. Even if you are running for President and your every move is scrutinized by an army of media soldiers. The “whispers” linking the former First Lady with her exotic assistant are all to be found by a simple search. I recommend “Hillary lesbian Huma.” Enjoy.
By the way, I’m actually a Clinton supporter, so no one can accuse me of trying to undermine her by spreading unsubstantiated cyber dirt. I’m also a big supporter of unsubstantiated cyber dirt, so there you go!
Bad Boys
Well, while we’re lolling around on the bottom of the sty, why not mention that Boy George has been arrested and charged with false imprisonment for chaining a 28-year old male escort to a wall. Looks like the, um, “incident” took place back in April, but this is the first I’ve heard of it. And I’m reading this in a reputable newspaper, the Daily Telegraph, so unlike Hillary’s Sapphic escapade, it must be true.
And do you remember good old Florida state representative Bob Allen? I don’t blame you for being confused, what with Larry Craig and that guy from Washington who got his rocks off in a video sex store in drag last week. But to refresh your memory, Allen was the fellow who offered to pay an undercover cop $20 for allowing the cop to let him (Allen) perform oral sex in the local park. After pleading not guilty, despite the sworn statement of the undercover officers involved, Allen was nonetheless convicted and faces a $500 fine and up to 60 days in jail. However, the married father of (I think two) is going to seek a new trial and accuses the prosecution of “misconduct.”
Will any of these sleazy guys just stand up, zip up, and be a man? . . .
November 15, 2007
Enough of ENDA! Don’t you agree? I know, it’s important. It’s not just ENDA. It’s the whole idea of who we are as men and women, and what we’re fighting for. The millenium generation, or whatever they’re called, will not be battling sexual orientation discrimination in a few years. But they will still be fighting discrimination on the basis of gender presentation. The macho gay guys and lipstick lesbians will be just fine. But woe betides the sissies, the dykes, the transmen and the transwomen.
I just read an article in last Sunday’s Boston Globe by Alison Lobron, called “Easy Out.” The subject was the decline of the closet, which is an underreported phenomenon. It’s true. Kids don’t go into the closet anymore, they grab their gay garb off the rack and get on with life in their mid teens.
ut one comment in Lobron’s lengthy piece caught my eye, and that was a remark from an 18-year-old girl who is trying to add gender identity and expression to her school’s anti-harassment code. “While she believes students are rarely harassed based on sexual orientation itself,” writes Lebron, “boys with feminine traits - and girls with masculine ones - still have a tough time.”
Our Foes Have Woes
In other news this week, I am fascinated by the much ballyhooed decline of the religious right as we know it; specifically the Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, James Dobson brand of avuncular venom that has poisoned politics, soured civility and crippled Christianity for the last 25 years. It’s chic to say that their time has come and gone, a piece of conventional wisdom that rings particularly true in Falwell’s case, since he’s dead. (Cue: “Sanctus” from Faure’s Requiem in D.) But it looks like the trendy punditry might actually be correct for once.
Exhibit A from this week is Pat Robertson’s endorsement of Rudy Giuliani, which might have occurred last week, I can’t recall. No matter! This week, Pat’s fellow conservofreaks have been bleating in outrage, particularly Randall Terry of Operation Rescue who said the decision made him “literally sick to my stomach.”
“If Rudy Giuliani was a Democrat,” said Terry, “Pat Robertson might denounce him as Satan himself - or at least Mayor Beelzebronx - Lord of the N.Y. Flies.” (Huh?) “Rudy has perfect credentials on social issues like child killing, partial birth abortion, federal funding for ‘poor women’ to have abortions, and so-called homosexual marriage or civil unions. Add to that his unblemished betrayal of the second amendment and he would be a stellar Democratic candidate - with the ethical stature of Al Sharpton, Al Gore and Hillary Clinton herself.”
Woah, Nelly!
As for Rudy, what is he thinking? Pat Robertson is the man who called feminism “a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians.”
This is the guy who said an earthquake, tornado “and possibly a meteor” would hit Orlando thanks to Gay Day at Disneyland.
Oh, I have a whole list here from the Dallas Morning News, but you’ve heard them all. Meanwhile, there was a big to do about James Dobson, who according to the American Spectator was all set to endorse Mike Huckabee within the next ten days.
According to the “Washington Prowler,” a source in Huckabee’s campaign said the nod from god “would help us get to the Thompson-McCain level if not higher. Dr. Dobson’s endorsement means that much.”
But the rumor was quickly quenched by Focus on the Family staffers, and Dobson himself, who said he is not planning on endorsing anyone in the near future.
Why does this matter? Because Sam Brownback just endorsed John McCain, and some big pro life group just endorsed Thompson, a whole bunch of preachers have paused on the stairway to Heaven to back Romney and even the Bush family is split between two or three candidates. They are canceling themselves out. Their endorsements are irrelevant and their agendas are last on the priority list of all the GOP candidates except maybe Huckabee, who won’t win the nomination in any event.
They are about to lose their own private bully, along with his pulpit. And as icing on the cake, it’s possible that their worst enemy will take command!
Hillary! Say It’s So!
But wait! Before you hand the Constitution over to Hillary, have you heard the latest gossip? Yes, it’s an Internet-fueled rumor of uncertain, read: baseless, origin. But there’s no reason to let that stop us from savoring the theoretical possibility that the Senator from New York is having an affair with her gorgeous personal aide, Huma Abedin.
I recommend that all readers rush instantly to the nearest computer and run a Google Image on Huma Abedin, and regardless of your gender or sexual orientation, you will certainly appreciate the rationale behind indulging in this kind of indiscretion. Even if you are running for President and your every move is scrutinized by an army of media soldiers. The “whispers” linking the former First Lady with her exotic assistant are all to be found by a simple search. I recommend “Hillary lesbian Huma.” Enjoy.
By the way, I’m actually a Clinton supporter, so no one can accuse me of trying to undermine her by spreading unsubstantiated cyber dirt. I’m also a big supporter of unsubstantiated cyber dirt, so there you go!
Bad Boys
Well, while we’re lolling around on the bottom of the sty, why not mention that Boy George has been arrested and charged with false imprisonment for chaining a 28-year old male escort to a wall. Looks like the, um, “incident” took place back in April, but this is the first I’ve heard of it. And I’m reading this in a reputable newspaper, the Daily Telegraph, so unlike Hillary’s Sapphic escapade, it must be true.
And do you remember good old Florida state representative Bob Allen? I don’t blame you for being confused, what with Larry Craig and that guy from Washington who got his rocks off in a video sex store in drag last week. But to refresh your memory, Allen was the fellow who offered to pay an undercover cop $20 for allowing the cop to let him (Allen) perform oral sex in the local park. After pleading not guilty, despite the sworn statement of the undercover officers involved, Allen was nonetheless convicted and faces a $500 fine and up to 60 days in jail. However, the married father of (I think two) is going to seek a new trial and accuses the prosecution of “misconduct.”
Will any of these sleazy guys just stand up, zip up, and be a man? . . .
ENDA Will Never Be a Long Term Solution for Anyone, Anyway
Kate Bornstein
November 18, 2007
I know a lot of trannies are sad or pissed off that the Employment Non-Discrimination Act isn't going to pass with them included. I'm a tranny. I'm pissed off, too. But no legislation has ever been able to deal with the root of the problem: You can't handle the impact of desire on a culture through the use of power politics or identity politics. No legislation can ever change how people feel about the chaos of desire.
At best, and even in it's most complete form, ENDA would have mostly protected people who cleaned up well enough to get a job in the first place: straight-looking people who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transsexual. These are folks who mostly define themselves by their desires. Well, there's a whole lot of other people whose lives are defined by their desires who would never be helped by ENDA. Harmless people. Nice people. People whose relationship to desire breaks the law nonetheless. LGBT doesn't even begin to include all of those folks. There's a whole lot of other letters that need protection from discrimination. You could start with these:
Q for Queer
S for Sadomasochists
G for Genderqueer
Q for Questioning
S for Sex Workers
K for Kinky
A for Allies
S for Swingers
P for Pornographers
A for Asexual
S for Sex Educators
P for Polyamorists
A for Adult Entertainers
I for Intersex
E for anyone Else who just plain likes sex
Even if ENDA passed in i's full version, none of these people would be included. And they certainly wouldn't be included in the version of ENDA offered by the terrified, well-intentioned, only somewhat cowardly, only somewhat bigoted Representative Barney Frank and his allies. But that's okay. The bill was originally designed on behalf of people whose sexual orientation alone could get them fired. That's okay if you believe that sexual orientation is based solely on the gender of your partner -- which it's not. A woman could be heterosexual, but that doesn't mean she'd fuck anyone with a penis. There are lots of factors that go into defining the nature of our desire -- factors we ignore in our McDonald's version of sexual orientation: this way or that way.
Besides, how could you fit all those letters onto one banner anyway? Instead of LGBT... you'd have something like LGBTQQAAASSSSIGKPPE, and that's a hell of a thing to fit into a sound byte. You can't even make an anagram for it, because of the two Q's with no U's. Nope, it's just LGBT. Even then, the B and the T are virtually invisible and only along for the ride. What we've really got is L&G, a movement of straight-acting, straight-appearing lesbians and gay men who want more rights for themselves, and damn everyone else whose identity depends upon their relationship to desire.
The bonds that tie together power, desire, and identity just aren't going to be dealt with on any long-range basis by power politics alone. Here's how it works: there are three primary motivating forces in everyone's life: identity, desire and power.
o Identity is how you define yourself, who you are, who you're aiming to be, and how you want to be seen and treated by a given culture or subculture.
o Power is whatever it is you need to get done -- what you freely choose to get done -- in your life: like feeding, clothing and sheltering yourself and your family. Power is the ability to get something done.
o Desire is what you want. Desire is the wanting itself, what you long for. Everything I say about desire here works for more than simply sexual desire, but since this essay is about the impact of sexual desire on our civilization, I'm going to stick with that.
The relationship of identity, power and desire is fascinating: they don't come apart from each other. They're each motivating forces in life that are linked to the other two motivating forces in life. If you were to draw that graphically, it might look like this:
We all of us go through our days, juggling these three motivating aspects of our life. If we've got the opportunity to increase any one of these factors, the other two increase accordingly. Similarly, if any of our identity, desire, or power are attacked and made less, then the other two factors shrink accordingly. That's the way it seems to work.
What's extremely interesting -- and relevant to the ENDA debate -- is the point at which all three of these factors overlap. Optimally, they all overlap at something called "the human spirit," or "God," or "higher power," or whatever it is you believe is a true, untainted and noble force in the world. Overlapping at that kind of point of commonality alone, we'd all of us be able to go through life defining our own identities, desires, and powers. More importantly, we'd respect the identities, powers, and desires of others. But that's not how it works in real life. In real life, there's something that over-rides the human spirit as a governing force for our identities, desires, and power. The graphic representation of the relationship of identity, desire, and power looks more like this:
Yep, gender sits squarely on the nexus of identity, desire, and power and dictates who we can be, who and how we can love, and how much power we've got in the world -- all based on our genders.
But it doesn't stop there. On any day, an even more realistic picture of life's motivating forces in relationship to any given culture looks like this:
You know the group I'd like to belong to? I'd give anything to be of service to a coalition of people who are fighting on behalf of each and every one of those cultural factors that impact our identities, desires, and powers. These aspects of life exist in today's culture -- naturally or socially constructed, it doesn't matter so much why they exist. They just do. And they're just as stuck to each other at the nexus of identity, desire, and power as Br'er Rabbit was to the tar baby: gender, race, class, age, looks, health status, ability, religion, and sexuality. They're all stuck to each other, and the only way to pull them apart is to form a coalition of people who work on behalf of liberation in each of these areas of life. There's never been a coalition like that in the world before. Ever. . . .
November 18, 2007
I know a lot of trannies are sad or pissed off that the Employment Non-Discrimination Act isn't going to pass with them included. I'm a tranny. I'm pissed off, too. But no legislation has ever been able to deal with the root of the problem: You can't handle the impact of desire on a culture through the use of power politics or identity politics. No legislation can ever change how people feel about the chaos of desire.
At best, and even in it's most complete form, ENDA would have mostly protected people who cleaned up well enough to get a job in the first place: straight-looking people who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transsexual. These are folks who mostly define themselves by their desires. Well, there's a whole lot of other people whose lives are defined by their desires who would never be helped by ENDA. Harmless people. Nice people. People whose relationship to desire breaks the law nonetheless. LGBT doesn't even begin to include all of those folks. There's a whole lot of other letters that need protection from discrimination. You could start with these:
Q for Queer
S for Sadomasochists
G for Genderqueer
Q for Questioning
S for Sex Workers
K for Kinky
A for Allies
S for Swingers
P for Pornographers
A for Asexual
S for Sex Educators
P for Polyamorists
A for Adult Entertainers
I for Intersex
E for anyone Else who just plain likes sex
Even if ENDA passed in i's full version, none of these people would be included. And they certainly wouldn't be included in the version of ENDA offered by the terrified, well-intentioned, only somewhat cowardly, only somewhat bigoted Representative Barney Frank and his allies. But that's okay. The bill was originally designed on behalf of people whose sexual orientation alone could get them fired. That's okay if you believe that sexual orientation is based solely on the gender of your partner -- which it's not. A woman could be heterosexual, but that doesn't mean she'd fuck anyone with a penis. There are lots of factors that go into defining the nature of our desire -- factors we ignore in our McDonald's version of sexual orientation: this way or that way.
Besides, how could you fit all those letters onto one banner anyway? Instead of LGBT... you'd have something like LGBTQQAAASSSSIGKPPE, and that's a hell of a thing to fit into a sound byte. You can't even make an anagram for it, because of the two Q's with no U's. Nope, it's just LGBT. Even then, the B and the T are virtually invisible and only along for the ride. What we've really got is L&G, a movement of straight-acting, straight-appearing lesbians and gay men who want more rights for themselves, and damn everyone else whose identity depends upon their relationship to desire.
The bonds that tie together power, desire, and identity just aren't going to be dealt with on any long-range basis by power politics alone. Here's how it works: there are three primary motivating forces in everyone's life: identity, desire and power.
o Identity is how you define yourself, who you are, who you're aiming to be, and how you want to be seen and treated by a given culture or subculture.
o Power is whatever it is you need to get done -- what you freely choose to get done -- in your life: like feeding, clothing and sheltering yourself and your family. Power is the ability to get something done.
o Desire is what you want. Desire is the wanting itself, what you long for. Everything I say about desire here works for more than simply sexual desire, but since this essay is about the impact of sexual desire on our civilization, I'm going to stick with that.
The relationship of identity, power and desire is fascinating: they don't come apart from each other. They're each motivating forces in life that are linked to the other two motivating forces in life. If you were to draw that graphically, it might look like this:
We all of us go through our days, juggling these three motivating aspects of our life. If we've got the opportunity to increase any one of these factors, the other two increase accordingly. Similarly, if any of our identity, desire, or power are attacked and made less, then the other two factors shrink accordingly. That's the way it seems to work.
What's extremely interesting -- and relevant to the ENDA debate -- is the point at which all three of these factors overlap. Optimally, they all overlap at something called "the human spirit," or "God," or "higher power," or whatever it is you believe is a true, untainted and noble force in the world. Overlapping at that kind of point of commonality alone, we'd all of us be able to go through life defining our own identities, desires, and powers. More importantly, we'd respect the identities, powers, and desires of others. But that's not how it works in real life. In real life, there's something that over-rides the human spirit as a governing force for our identities, desires, and power. The graphic representation of the relationship of identity, desire, and power looks more like this:
Yep, gender sits squarely on the nexus of identity, desire, and power and dictates who we can be, who and how we can love, and how much power we've got in the world -- all based on our genders.
But it doesn't stop there. On any day, an even more realistic picture of life's motivating forces in relationship to any given culture looks like this:
You know the group I'd like to belong to? I'd give anything to be of service to a coalition of people who are fighting on behalf of each and every one of those cultural factors that impact our identities, desires, and powers. These aspects of life exist in today's culture -- naturally or socially constructed, it doesn't matter so much why they exist. They just do. And they're just as stuck to each other at the nexus of identity, desire, and power as Br'er Rabbit was to the tar baby: gender, race, class, age, looks, health status, ability, religion, and sexuality. They're all stuck to each other, and the only way to pull them apart is to form a coalition of people who work on behalf of liberation in each of these areas of life. There's never been a coalition like that in the world before. Ever. . . .
Sultry Blond On ABC Show Is Hawaii Transgender
Nov 15, 2007
Local actress and transgender woman Candis Cayne is heating up the small screen on the ABC TV show "Dirty Sexy Money."
The sultry blond on ABC's "Dirty Sexy Money" is Cayne.
She is a 1989 graduate of Maui's Baldwin High School.
This island girl was born a boy. She was born Brendan McDaniel with fraternal twin Dylan.
Cayne said she knew she was different from a young age.
"(Dylan) was off with his friends playing football and riding bike, and I was with my girlfriends playing Barbies," Cayne said. "My parents were very liberal, and amazing, and they kind of let me be who I wanted to be. They never really questioned it."
They remained supportive when she decided a decade ago to transition to a woman.
Now, Cayne is having the time of her life playing the role of the transgender Carmelita, the love interest of Billy Baldwin's character.
"It's something I've prepared for 15 years. So, I'm really, really? it's a dream come true kind of," she said.
It's a dream come true for the Maui girl who still misses the islands.
"I'm obsessed with cone sushi and I love shoyu chicken. Those are my two favorites, and I go right to the beach, Makena, and go and hang out with my parents," she said.
Local actress and transgender woman Candis Cayne is heating up the small screen on the ABC TV show "Dirty Sexy Money."
The sultry blond on ABC's "Dirty Sexy Money" is Cayne.
She is a 1989 graduate of Maui's Baldwin High School.
This island girl was born a boy. She was born Brendan McDaniel with fraternal twin Dylan.
Cayne said she knew she was different from a young age.
"(Dylan) was off with his friends playing football and riding bike, and I was with my girlfriends playing Barbies," Cayne said. "My parents were very liberal, and amazing, and they kind of let me be who I wanted to be. They never really questioned it."
They remained supportive when she decided a decade ago to transition to a woman.
Now, Cayne is having the time of her life playing the role of the transgender Carmelita, the love interest of Billy Baldwin's character.
"It's something I've prepared for 15 years. So, I'm really, really? it's a dream come true kind of," she said.
It's a dream come true for the Maui girl who still misses the islands.
"I'm obsessed with cone sushi and I love shoyu chicken. Those are my two favorites, and I go right to the beach, Makena, and go and hang out with my parents," she said.
Take a trans on them
By MICHAEL RECHTSHAFFEN
November 18, 2007
HOLLYWOOD -- You've heard of Trainspotting, now get ready for Transpotting.
Once relegated to what seemed like every other edition of The Jerry Springer Show, transvestites and transsexuals suddenly appear to be popping up all over the screen in record numbers.
Now that gay characters are no longer raising eyebrows in the aftermath of shows like Will & Grace and The L Word, trend-hungry Hollywood has been on the lookout for the next big thing and it might just be onto something.
While the independent film world led the gender-bending way with titles like 1999's Boys Don't Cry, in which Hilary Swank burst upon the scene playing a young woman who passes herself off as a man; and 2005's Transamerica, with Felicity Huffman playing a pre-op male-to-female, scripted television has been much slower to embrace the, uh, transformation.
Sure, there have been plotlines involving transsexual characters on dramas like Law & Order, Without a Trace, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and Nip/Tuck, but it took Ugly Betty to introduce a regular post-op character in the decidedly feminine form of Rebecca Romijn assuming the role of Alexis (formerly Alex) Meade. . . .
November 18, 2007
HOLLYWOOD -- You've heard of Trainspotting, now get ready for Transpotting.
Once relegated to what seemed like every other edition of The Jerry Springer Show, transvestites and transsexuals suddenly appear to be popping up all over the screen in record numbers.
Now that gay characters are no longer raising eyebrows in the aftermath of shows like Will & Grace and The L Word, trend-hungry Hollywood has been on the lookout for the next big thing and it might just be onto something.
While the independent film world led the gender-bending way with titles like 1999's Boys Don't Cry, in which Hilary Swank burst upon the scene playing a young woman who passes herself off as a man; and 2005's Transamerica, with Felicity Huffman playing a pre-op male-to-female, scripted television has been much slower to embrace the, uh, transformation.
Sure, there have been plotlines involving transsexual characters on dramas like Law & Order, Without a Trace, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and Nip/Tuck, but it took Ugly Betty to introduce a regular post-op character in the decidedly feminine form of Rebecca Romijn assuming the role of Alexis (formerly Alex) Meade. . . .
Gender identity and the chemical delay of puberty
A call for more clinics and treatment for children at an early stage in their growth
Stephanie Brill,Herbert Schreier
November 18, 2007
After agonizing for most of his 48 years over who he really was, Steven Stanton began the process of becoming a woman two years ago. Six thousand miles away in Germany, a 12-year-old boy named Kim has started hormonal therapy in preparation for surgery to make him a girl. He may be the youngest person to begin this treatment.
Stanton and Kim represent the small proportion of gender-variant individuals who wish to change the body in which they were born to conform to the person they believe themselves to be. In the nomenclature of the American Psychiatric Association, both individuals would be said to be suffering from Gender Identity Disorder.
<< Two Cents: Has your thinking about transgender changed? >>
Though the public is becoming more aware of gender variance in children, there is still a lot of misunderstanding about what exactly it means to be transgender. Most people who ultimately live their lives as the other gender have felt they were given the wrong body since very early childhood. Most parents of children like Kim, plus a growing number of professionals who have experience with these children, recognize two things:
First, the children who see themselves as of the other gender are born with this belief. It is "hard wired," emerging at around 2 to 2 1/2 years of age, just about the time other children begin to recognize themselves as being a boy or a girl. And second, although these children are unhappy about the body they inhabit, they are otherwise normal, often endearing and creative.
However, there is still a common assumption that these children suffer from a disorder and should be treated to alter their internal sense of gender to align with their biological sex.
In response to this damaging reparative approach, clinics in support of cross-gendered children have sprung up. And a growing number of professionals are working to support younger children and their families despite the opprobrium of colleagues and ethical challenges to their stance.
The endocrinologists and surgeons who support beginning the process of gender reassignment sooner often have arrived at their conclusion after seeing adults such as Stanton come to doctors so late to seek bodily change that the process is much more difficult.
Many transgender people reach desperate psychological straits not only because of the reflection they see of themselves in the public at large, but also because of professional indifference or refusal to help them when they are younger. Child psychologists and therapists generally arrive at a more appropriate stance when they see the variety of children and families who come in for advice - and who do not fit the stereotypical perceptions or psychodynamic explanations of family pathology common in the field.
In a peer-run support group for parents of children whom we prefer to call gender-variant, most of the children reflect the bias we see in a child psychiatry clinic - that is, many more boys who want to dress, play like and be with girls. Girls who have gender-variant preferences do not attract much concern or attention, and those whose parents come to the group are the ones who actually insist that they are boys.
Thus we see a wider range of anatomical boys - more who have a female gender expression and a few who have a female gender identity.
The preponderance of anatomical boys in the group is likely because it is much less troublesome to the world at large for a girl to engage in boy behavior. Though most gender-variant children do not end up being transgender, many do go on to prefer same-sex partners, indicating that the gender variance may have been part of their sexual orientation and not necessarily their core gender identity.
Uniform to the parents in our group is the anguish they experience as their kids enter kindergarten and increasingly appear "different" to their peers in a way that invites teasing and worse. Taking a leap of faith, some parents have supported their child's reidentified gender identity, not their biologically given sex. The results are frequently astounding; once anxious and depressed children, some even expressing suicidal thoughts at very tender ages, make dramatic psychological turnarounds for the better.
In the group, two children under 12 have begun therapy that delays the middle and late states of puberty for three to four years. Both have been living as boys for several years.
This treatment is reversible should the child change his/her mind, but it prevents the development of secondary sexual characteristics (such as Adam's apple, deepening voice, breasts) that are more difficult to deal with should the children go on to surgery following the future administration of "opposite sex" hormones.
This may partially account for the positive outcomes reported thus far in young starters compared to those such as Stanton who start as adults. The suppression of puberty is seen as a diagnostic aid that allows therapists and patients to evaluate problems under less time pressure.
At the Amsterdam Gender Clinic in Holland, it has become clear that the earlier the decision is made to start the process, the better off the child. After administering the medications to delay puberty, the doctors - if all goes well - provide opposite sex-hormonal treatment in children at age 16, the age when children are able to give medical consent in Europe. With this process in place, doctors have had not one child regret the change after surgery. While much is known about the effects of delaying puberty on the body, less is known about its effects on the brain, and both continue to be carefully evaluated.
Definitive studies are not yet in that demonstrate that these children's understanding of themselves stems from a particular biological process, but for those of us who have worked with these children and their families for years, it is overwhelmingly apparent that family dynamics cannot explain the dysphoria these children feel at such an early age.
On the contrary, while researchers 50 years ago felt strongly that gender was malleable and could be assigned, current studies find the opposite to be true. When various therapies for gender-variant children aimed at "realigning them according to their biological sex" were studied, there was little to suggest any "success."
One such study was a behavioral approach that in therapy sessions grabbed dolls away from boys and replaced them with tanks and such, telling the children that these were the toys boys played with. New research is showing that family acceptance or rejection of these children has a major impact on their health and mental well-being.
Watching the parents in our group suffer over the treatment their children receive in the earliest grades, and anticipating the truly horrendous scenes that many will face as adolescents, even in the Bay Area, it is no wonder that many of these parents have turned to advocacy and activism for their children.
This includes meetings with grade-school teachers, bringing in experts to the schools, developing reading material for the kids and curricula for schools starting in the very early grades, and presenting programs aimed at the education of pediatricians, many of whom are not well versed in the current research on these issues.
But for the minority of gender-variant children who are truly transgender, the issues for the parents are so much greater. Parents of these children fear that if they force their child to endure puberty in the "wrong" body, they might altogether lose their children. This is not an exaggeration: Current statistics reveal that an astoundingly high percentage of transgender teenagers attempt suicide.
So for these parents, the decision to delay puberty medically for their children becomes a difficult if obvious choice. The treatment appears to be effective and completely reversible. But when and how do you decide to start such a course of treatment?
In the Netherlands, the children must meet certain criteria of wanting to be the opposite sex from an early age. Then they are evaluated by more than one psychiatrist or psychologist experienced with such children. The children must be reasonably free of serious mental illness, which does not include anxiety and/or the dysphoria of living in the wrong body.
Such children are then candidates for delaying advanced puberty - and a two-year trial period in which they must live out life as the opposite sex. The length of the trial period gives them time to reflect on their decision. (Our British colleagues object to the fact that because the trial period delays the development of secondary sexual characteristics, it does not provide a child the opportunity to live in the advanced adolescent body of their biological sex.)
However, when this procedure is followed, the Dutch have not had one case of surgical regret in more than 25 cases published in peer-reviewed journals.
One clinic in Germany will start the hormonal treatment as young as 12. Though treatment at age 16 is now possible at the Dutch clinic and from some American endocrinologists, such an age is still seen by some as too young.
Frustration continues for American parents of transgender children, as it can be difficult to find care providers who are willing to medically delay puberty and then to provide cross-hormones at or before 16 years of age so that children can experience the puberty of their gender identity.
Psychological support and evaluation is usually available only in a few specialized clinics. And it is very difficult to find an insurance company that will cover all of these treatments. In a system that can afford the plethora of expensive surgical procedures for advanced cardiac disease in people of well-advanced age, we surely can afford more clinics to evaluate and treat these children, and not condemn them to psychological morbidity at an early age. . . .
Stephanie Brill,Herbert Schreier
November 18, 2007
After agonizing for most of his 48 years over who he really was, Steven Stanton began the process of becoming a woman two years ago. Six thousand miles away in Germany, a 12-year-old boy named Kim has started hormonal therapy in preparation for surgery to make him a girl. He may be the youngest person to begin this treatment.
Stanton and Kim represent the small proportion of gender-variant individuals who wish to change the body in which they were born to conform to the person they believe themselves to be. In the nomenclature of the American Psychiatric Association, both individuals would be said to be suffering from Gender Identity Disorder.
<< Two Cents: Has your thinking about transgender changed? >>
Though the public is becoming more aware of gender variance in children, there is still a lot of misunderstanding about what exactly it means to be transgender. Most people who ultimately live their lives as the other gender have felt they were given the wrong body since very early childhood. Most parents of children like Kim, plus a growing number of professionals who have experience with these children, recognize two things:
First, the children who see themselves as of the other gender are born with this belief. It is "hard wired," emerging at around 2 to 2 1/2 years of age, just about the time other children begin to recognize themselves as being a boy or a girl. And second, although these children are unhappy about the body they inhabit, they are otherwise normal, often endearing and creative.
However, there is still a common assumption that these children suffer from a disorder and should be treated to alter their internal sense of gender to align with their biological sex.
In response to this damaging reparative approach, clinics in support of cross-gendered children have sprung up. And a growing number of professionals are working to support younger children and their families despite the opprobrium of colleagues and ethical challenges to their stance.
The endocrinologists and surgeons who support beginning the process of gender reassignment sooner often have arrived at their conclusion after seeing adults such as Stanton come to doctors so late to seek bodily change that the process is much more difficult.
Many transgender people reach desperate psychological straits not only because of the reflection they see of themselves in the public at large, but also because of professional indifference or refusal to help them when they are younger. Child psychologists and therapists generally arrive at a more appropriate stance when they see the variety of children and families who come in for advice - and who do not fit the stereotypical perceptions or psychodynamic explanations of family pathology common in the field.
In a peer-run support group for parents of children whom we prefer to call gender-variant, most of the children reflect the bias we see in a child psychiatry clinic - that is, many more boys who want to dress, play like and be with girls. Girls who have gender-variant preferences do not attract much concern or attention, and those whose parents come to the group are the ones who actually insist that they are boys.
Thus we see a wider range of anatomical boys - more who have a female gender expression and a few who have a female gender identity.
The preponderance of anatomical boys in the group is likely because it is much less troublesome to the world at large for a girl to engage in boy behavior. Though most gender-variant children do not end up being transgender, many do go on to prefer same-sex partners, indicating that the gender variance may have been part of their sexual orientation and not necessarily their core gender identity.
Uniform to the parents in our group is the anguish they experience as their kids enter kindergarten and increasingly appear "different" to their peers in a way that invites teasing and worse. Taking a leap of faith, some parents have supported their child's reidentified gender identity, not their biologically given sex. The results are frequently astounding; once anxious and depressed children, some even expressing suicidal thoughts at very tender ages, make dramatic psychological turnarounds for the better.
In the group, two children under 12 have begun therapy that delays the middle and late states of puberty for three to four years. Both have been living as boys for several years.
This treatment is reversible should the child change his/her mind, but it prevents the development of secondary sexual characteristics (such as Adam's apple, deepening voice, breasts) that are more difficult to deal with should the children go on to surgery following the future administration of "opposite sex" hormones.
This may partially account for the positive outcomes reported thus far in young starters compared to those such as Stanton who start as adults. The suppression of puberty is seen as a diagnostic aid that allows therapists and patients to evaluate problems under less time pressure.
At the Amsterdam Gender Clinic in Holland, it has become clear that the earlier the decision is made to start the process, the better off the child. After administering the medications to delay puberty, the doctors - if all goes well - provide opposite sex-hormonal treatment in children at age 16, the age when children are able to give medical consent in Europe. With this process in place, doctors have had not one child regret the change after surgery. While much is known about the effects of delaying puberty on the body, less is known about its effects on the brain, and both continue to be carefully evaluated.
Definitive studies are not yet in that demonstrate that these children's understanding of themselves stems from a particular biological process, but for those of us who have worked with these children and their families for years, it is overwhelmingly apparent that family dynamics cannot explain the dysphoria these children feel at such an early age.
On the contrary, while researchers 50 years ago felt strongly that gender was malleable and could be assigned, current studies find the opposite to be true. When various therapies for gender-variant children aimed at "realigning them according to their biological sex" were studied, there was little to suggest any "success."
One such study was a behavioral approach that in therapy sessions grabbed dolls away from boys and replaced them with tanks and such, telling the children that these were the toys boys played with. New research is showing that family acceptance or rejection of these children has a major impact on their health and mental well-being.
Watching the parents in our group suffer over the treatment their children receive in the earliest grades, and anticipating the truly horrendous scenes that many will face as adolescents, even in the Bay Area, it is no wonder that many of these parents have turned to advocacy and activism for their children.
This includes meetings with grade-school teachers, bringing in experts to the schools, developing reading material for the kids and curricula for schools starting in the very early grades, and presenting programs aimed at the education of pediatricians, many of whom are not well versed in the current research on these issues.
But for the minority of gender-variant children who are truly transgender, the issues for the parents are so much greater. Parents of these children fear that if they force their child to endure puberty in the "wrong" body, they might altogether lose their children. This is not an exaggeration: Current statistics reveal that an astoundingly high percentage of transgender teenagers attempt suicide.
So for these parents, the decision to delay puberty medically for their children becomes a difficult if obvious choice. The treatment appears to be effective and completely reversible. But when and how do you decide to start such a course of treatment?
In the Netherlands, the children must meet certain criteria of wanting to be the opposite sex from an early age. Then they are evaluated by more than one psychiatrist or psychologist experienced with such children. The children must be reasonably free of serious mental illness, which does not include anxiety and/or the dysphoria of living in the wrong body.
Such children are then candidates for delaying advanced puberty - and a two-year trial period in which they must live out life as the opposite sex. The length of the trial period gives them time to reflect on their decision. (Our British colleagues object to the fact that because the trial period delays the development of secondary sexual characteristics, it does not provide a child the opportunity to live in the advanced adolescent body of their biological sex.)
However, when this procedure is followed, the Dutch have not had one case of surgical regret in more than 25 cases published in peer-reviewed journals.
One clinic in Germany will start the hormonal treatment as young as 12. Though treatment at age 16 is now possible at the Dutch clinic and from some American endocrinologists, such an age is still seen by some as too young.
Frustration continues for American parents of transgender children, as it can be difficult to find care providers who are willing to medically delay puberty and then to provide cross-hormones at or before 16 years of age so that children can experience the puberty of their gender identity.
Psychological support and evaluation is usually available only in a few specialized clinics. And it is very difficult to find an insurance company that will cover all of these treatments. In a system that can afford the plethora of expensive surgical procedures for advanced cardiac disease in people of well-advanced age, we surely can afford more clinics to evaluate and treat these children, and not condemn them to psychological morbidity at an early age. . . .
India: Transgender to campaign for gender justice in education
by Papri Sri Raman
17 November 2007
Chennai, Nov 17 - A 28-year-old transgender who was forced to grow up as a boy and who is now aspiring to be a television host in Tamil Nadu is campaigning for gender justice in education.
Rose, who will be a talk show host from next month for STAR Vijay -- a Tamil television channel of the STAR group -- emphasises that education alone can redeem transgender people and empower them economically.
'And only if you are economically empowered can you demand gender equality,' Rose told IANS.
Rose is a mechanical engineer with a master's degree in biomedical engineering from the Louisiana Tech University in the US. Facing a gender dilemma at a young age, Rose spent her school and college years immersed in books.
Belonging to a middle class Tamil family, Rose was brought up as a boy and educated at two elite schools in Chennai.
'My first school was a co-educational institution. Everyone thought I was a boy. But gender, I realise, is more of a mental thing. It is how a person feels ... whether you feel like a girl or a boy,' said Rose.
'The boys in school found me strange, were rude at times. The girls often teased me and wanted to know why I was more like them. I realised I was different from boys and I was different from girls. I retreated into my studies more and more. I had few friends and topped my class in academics. My parents and teachers were delighted.
In high school, she was placed in a boys' school. Those teenage years gave Rose her gender bearing. They were painful decision-making years, years of hiding, and 'not knowing'.
'I had no friends, nowhere to go, nothing else to do, so I studied,' she recalled.
Schools should be sensitised about transgender children. Such students should be allowed to go to school along with children from the other two genders as neither boys or girls, Rose says.
'Our religious texts and history have lots and lots of examples of transgender people. I want families with transgender children to accept them as normal children and educate them at par with their sons and daughters,' she said.
Rose did very well in board examinations and was offered a free seat at the Sathayabhama Engineering College to study mechanical engineering. Here again Rose topped her class.
17 November 2007
Chennai, Nov 17 - A 28-year-old transgender who was forced to grow up as a boy and who is now aspiring to be a television host in Tamil Nadu is campaigning for gender justice in education.
Rose, who will be a talk show host from next month for STAR Vijay -- a Tamil television channel of the STAR group -- emphasises that education alone can redeem transgender people and empower them economically.
'And only if you are economically empowered can you demand gender equality,' Rose told IANS.
Rose is a mechanical engineer with a master's degree in biomedical engineering from the Louisiana Tech University in the US. Facing a gender dilemma at a young age, Rose spent her school and college years immersed in books.
Belonging to a middle class Tamil family, Rose was brought up as a boy and educated at two elite schools in Chennai.
'My first school was a co-educational institution. Everyone thought I was a boy. But gender, I realise, is more of a mental thing. It is how a person feels ... whether you feel like a girl or a boy,' said Rose.
'The boys in school found me strange, were rude at times. The girls often teased me and wanted to know why I was more like them. I realised I was different from boys and I was different from girls. I retreated into my studies more and more. I had few friends and topped my class in academics. My parents and teachers were delighted.
In high school, she was placed in a boys' school. Those teenage years gave Rose her gender bearing. They were painful decision-making years, years of hiding, and 'not knowing'.
'I had no friends, nowhere to go, nothing else to do, so I studied,' she recalled.
Schools should be sensitised about transgender children. Such students should be allowed to go to school along with children from the other two genders as neither boys or girls, Rose says.
'Our religious texts and history have lots and lots of examples of transgender people. I want families with transgender children to accept them as normal children and educate them at par with their sons and daughters,' she said.
Rose did very well in board examinations and was offered a free seat at the Sathayabhama Engineering College to study mechanical engineering. Here again Rose topped her class.
Dallas human rights fundraiser could be showdown on transgender issues
Transgender activist Donna Rose, left, and Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese, right, may get a chance to start mending their differences at Dallas' 2007 Black Tie Dinner on Saturday, Nov. 17.
by John Wright
November 16, 2007
It's beginning to sound like Dallas' 2007 Black Tie Dinner could turn into a food fight.
At the very least, there will be some big issues on the table at the annual fundraiser Saturday, Nov. 17.
That's because leading transgender activist Donna Rose will be there, and so will Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese.
Rose recently resigned from HRC's Board of Directors in response to the organization's failure to sign a petition opposing a version of the federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act that includes sexual orientation but not gender identity. In not signing the petition, HRC broke with more than 300 LGBT groups.
Rose, however, is still working with HRC's Business Council, and Dallas Voice recently learned she would be in town this week conducting a workshop on trans issues at Plano-based Frito-Lay. What we didn't realize initially is that she will also be going to Black Tie, which is the largest fundraiser of its kind in the nation and which lists HRC as one of its chief beneficiaries.
Here's some of what Rose had to say. For more, check out DVtv at www.dallasvoice.com.
Dallas Voice: You resigned from the board, but you're still working with HRC. How do you reconcile that, and don't you think some trangender folks are pretty upset about it?
Donna Rose: I do, and they don't really get a vote, to be perfectly honest. My original thought was to just quit everything, as you say, but I think it's easy to make decisions in the heat of the moment that aren't really the best decisions because you find that by acting out of emotion, you've really hurt the thing you got involved with in the first place. And the fact of the matter is, if this version of ENDA moves, or even if it doesn't, the opportunity has never been greater, and the need has never been greater, for trans education in workplaces and in society in general, So, to answer your question, I don't feel it's a conflict.
DV: HRC didn't sign the petition. Then, just before ENDA came up for a vote on the House floor, the organization actually signed a letter supporting the sexual-orientation-only version of the bill. Do you feel betrayed?
Legendary actor and activist Martin Sheen, left, opposes the war in Iraq. Openly gay former Marine Eric Alva, right, was the war's first American casualty. Sheen and Alva will both speak during Dallas' 2007 Black Tie Dinner.
Legendary actor and activist Martin Sheen, left, opposes the war in Iraq. Openly gay former Marine Eric Alva, right, was the war's first American casualty. Sheen and Alva will both speak during Dallas' 2007 Black Tie Dinner.
Rose: Betrayal is one of many emotions -- because of the board vote in 2004, where they had invited a number of trans activists from around the country to do a presentation to the board and to ask that HRC only support trans-inclusive federal legislation -- and specifically a trans-inclusive ENDA -- and the board agreed that day. That decision opened the door for many of us to become involved. I did feel betrayed in lots of ways, and part of the betrayal frankly was that I was never involved from day one. The week of ENDA, I called Joe [Solmonese] up that Monday and asked him to please let me know if there was anything happening that I needed to know, because it affected me profoundly, and he promised that he would, that I would be his second phone call. But as the ENDA drama unfolded, there was no attempt by anyone at the organization to keep me informed, to kind of warn me, to help me understand what was happening, to the point where it felt like a deliberate attempt to put me on the sidelines while they did what they felt they needed to do. And I still believe that. Nothing has happened since then to change my opinion in that regard, so my levels of frustration and anger, disappointment -- you can put whatever emotion you want in there, they all fit -- they haven't gone away. I don't buy into the underlying premise of incremental gain, that they had ever put the faith that was necessary in a fully inclusive version to ever give it a chance to pass, so we are where we are.
DV: At the same time, are you impressed with the solidarity of other LGBT groups? More than 300 signed the petition.
Rose: I am. I think you have to look for the positive in almost any situation, and certainly we've learned a lot through this. You learn a lot through hard times. It's easy to be a friend when life is good, and when you're not asked to risk anything or to do anything, and I think we learn what we're made of when times are hardest.
DV: For you, how much of this debate goes back to the fact that in the early years, at the time of the Stonewall riots, the drag queens and cross-dressers -- although maybe not transgender people because it was too early -- were on the front lines?
Rose: They were on the front lines, because they were always the most flamboyant, the most visible. One of the frustrating components of this has been some of the pushback, in that there are those who believe that as a community -- again, if you buy into this mentality that the transgender community is separate from the gay and lesbian community, that we haven't suffered enough, or that we haven't paid our dues, or that we're a Johnny-come-lately to the dance and we're really riding coattails. And those kinds of things are nothing but destructive. I really think that shows a significant misunderstanding of what we are and who we are as a larger community, and just the broader protections that we all expect when we're looking for a job or we have a job and are in the workplace. So it's true.
DV: Will you be attending Black Tie or picketing Black Tie?
Rose: I'll be attending Black Tie. I'm not a picketer. That's not my style. I've gotten all kinds of e-mail about what to do, because there are people who are very angry right now, and they don't know where to direct the anger, and so there's a lot of need to kind of calm things down -- again, before we make decisions in the heat of the moment that aren't really the best decisions. I'm still not sure what constructive outcome we're hoping to achieve by picketing. If Black Tie were simply an HRC event, I would not be going, I'll tell you that. I was in Washington for the National Dinner and I chose not to attend. But Black Tie, to me, is a model that other events should adopt in terms of being able to support local organizations who are underserved and underfunded and deserve that kind of recognition, so I'll be there. I'm sure Joe [Solmonese] will be there, and it will be interesting.
DV: What needs to happen to for you to regain the trust you claim the transgender community has lost?
Rose: The first thing that I think really needs to happen, to be perfectly honest, is an apology. Promises were broken. Nobody's disputing that. The reasons they were broken we can argue about all day long, but the fact that those promises were made, that people made good-faith efforts to be involved, to get involved, and then to find they were in essentially lied to for whatever reason, requires an apology in my book. And so when you ask what it will take, to me the beginning of healing starts with an apology. I really think that Joe [Solmonese] specifically and personally needs to show that leadership and offer that apology. . . .
Two Cents
Has your thinking about transgender individuals changed?
November 18, 2007
Nick Cawthon, Oakland
Are you kidding? RuPaul just raised $4 million in a single day for his presidential run. You can't get any more mainstream than that!
Mark Savery, San Francisco
Yes. As a gay man, I'm thinking about the old saying, "United we stand, divided we fall." Recent actions in Congress have marginalized one group of people (transgender) to benefit another (gays and lesbians). Having endured discrimination myself, I find it distasteful to see the status of my sexual identity raised at the expense of another group.
Tom Martin, Oakland
When I first moved to the Bay Area 10 years ago, I was aware of trans people and their issues. I was initially very angry at their reshaping of their own gender, then thought about it and could not understand why I was so mad at "them." I dropped that attitude. They are people, too, with their own struggles in addition to what most other people deal with on a daily basis.
Kristie Lauborough, Larkspur
I grew up in the South, in a place where I would never have dreamed that transgender people exist. As I've gotten older, I've had two of my ex-boyfriends come to the realization that they were women emotionally and wanted to change their physical appearance to match. I respect and applaud them both for this.
Liz Raymer, Berkeley
My thinking about transgender individuals has always been open and accepting. My prejudices are against individuals who refuse to accept anything but the government's way of doing things, or what they think is written in the Bible. There's where I draw the line.
Doris Howard, San Francisco
Not since 1972, when I co-founded a Gender Identity Unit within a department of psychiatry at a New York City hospital. I found them to be just like everyone else, with their own particular problems.
Stan Flouride, San Francisco
I know both men and women who are transgender and that exposure has helped me realize one very important fact: They are universally much happier after they complete their process. Life is tough enough without being dealt a hand that includes the wrong sex for one's being.
Read more answers to this question at sfgate.com/twocents, where you'll also find FAQs about The Chronicle's Two Cents Project. To join, e-mail us at twocents@sfchronicle.com.
November 18, 2007
Nick Cawthon, Oakland
Are you kidding? RuPaul just raised $4 million in a single day for his presidential run. You can't get any more mainstream than that!
Mark Savery, San Francisco
Yes. As a gay man, I'm thinking about the old saying, "United we stand, divided we fall." Recent actions in Congress have marginalized one group of people (transgender) to benefit another (gays and lesbians). Having endured discrimination myself, I find it distasteful to see the status of my sexual identity raised at the expense of another group.
Tom Martin, Oakland
When I first moved to the Bay Area 10 years ago, I was aware of trans people and their issues. I was initially very angry at their reshaping of their own gender, then thought about it and could not understand why I was so mad at "them." I dropped that attitude. They are people, too, with their own struggles in addition to what most other people deal with on a daily basis.
Kristie Lauborough, Larkspur
I grew up in the South, in a place where I would never have dreamed that transgender people exist. As I've gotten older, I've had two of my ex-boyfriends come to the realization that they were women emotionally and wanted to change their physical appearance to match. I respect and applaud them both for this.
Liz Raymer, Berkeley
My thinking about transgender individuals has always been open and accepting. My prejudices are against individuals who refuse to accept anything but the government's way of doing things, or what they think is written in the Bible. There's where I draw the line.
Doris Howard, San Francisco
Not since 1972, when I co-founded a Gender Identity Unit within a department of psychiatry at a New York City hospital. I found them to be just like everyone else, with their own particular problems.
Stan Flouride, San Francisco
I know both men and women who are transgender and that exposure has helped me realize one very important fact: They are universally much happier after they complete their process. Life is tough enough without being dealt a hand that includes the wrong sex for one's being.
Read more answers to this question at sfgate.com/twocents, where you'll also find FAQs about The Chronicle's Two Cents Project. To join, e-mail us at twocents@sfchronicle.com.
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